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MATRIMONY

$110.00

Los Angeles, more than most places, is prone to being described as having a dark or seamy underbelly. This is because of the permanent veneer of entertainment industry glamour that official L.A. presents to the world. This is the Los Angeles that attracts tourists and transients alike: the Los Angeles of ‘I Love L.A.,” red carpets, maps to the stars homes, the Brown Derby, and Hollywood and Vine.

Then, there’s the other L.A: the Los Angles of Suicidal Tendencies, N.W.A., Dogtown, and those geographical bywords for middle-American terror, East L.A. and South Central.

After the fact, the representatives of the respectable face of the city will be more than happy to claim these things as their own. Marketing jargon like “colorful local culture” will be employed, and the reputation of the city as a happening, exciting locale will be enhanced. The condemnation, harassment, and beatings that were doled out before these things became acceptable will be, conveniently, forgotten.

Born x Raised is the impulse to preserve the “other” Los Angeles in the face of the real estate and economic forces threatening to permanently alter the city’s cultural landscape. Born x Raised designs are inspired by some of the most uncompromising, confrontational elements of the various local subcultures, the kind of real life creative fire that has made the legacy of unofficial Los Angeles every bit as lasting and important as the Hollywood version.